Utilization of Additive Manufacturing to Produce Tools

In the last decade, customized design and small series production gained importance in various industries. The production of these special tools becomes one of the most important costs for the production process. With the advances in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, tools can be produced efficiently in short lead times and costs with additive manufacturing. In this chapter, first, an overview on the additive technologies to produces tools, also called rapid tooling, will be given. The advantages as well as disadvantages will be discussed. Following that, on an example of metal forming tools, different materials coupled with different additive production techniques will be compared. Also, most important points will be highlighted to select the most appropriate tool material and manufacturing method. Finally, a methodology to identify the tool life will be suggested, and its validation and verification on a simplified deep drawing geometry will be depicted. The comparison of numerical prediction and experimental results are shown to be in good agreement

Emerging Space Technologies: Macro-scale On-orbit Manufacturing

Advanced additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have the potential to change the way in which satellites and spacecraft are deployed in orbit by removing traditional launch constraints, whether faring volume or launch loads, and allowing space structures to become larger, lighter and more capable with integrated features. These same approaches may also be exploited for on-orbit servicing, thereby potentially extending the operable lifetime of space infrastructure and increasing cost effectiveness. This paper will provide an overview of the key issues associated with on-orbit manufacturing and discuss the use of AM technologies and investigate the next wave of emerging space technologies enabled by on-orbit manufacturing

Emerging space technologies: macro-scale on-orbit manufacturing

Advanced additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have the potential to change the way in which satellites and spacecraft are deployed in orbit by removing traditional launch constraints, whether faring volume or launch loads, and allowing space structures to become larger, lighter and more capable with integrated features. These same approaches may also be exploited for on-orbit servicing, thereby potentially extending the operable lifetime of space infrastructure and increasing cost effectiveness. This paper will provide an overview of the key issues associated with on-orbit manufacturing and discuss the use of AM technologies and investigate the next wave of emerging space technologies enabled by on-orbit manufacturing

Additively Manufactured Coatings

Functional coatings are cost-effective means to protect substrates from wear, corrosion, erosion, tribocorrosion, high temperature and high pressure in extreme environmental conditions. These are primarily manufactured through metal/ceramic powder deposition in a subsequent layer by layer fashion on the substrate materials. In all cases, the functional coatings need to be reliable for the intended application. The emerging techniques in 3D printing/additive manufacturing can be utilized to develop high-performance functional coatings. These methods provide geometrical precision, flexibility in geometrical complexity, customization of the coating layers, and reduce the raw materials waste, keeping the manufacturing cost low while addressing many of the technical barriers of conventional coating methods. With the rapid development of cutting-edge value-added technologies in aerospace, nuclear, military, space, and energy industry, 3D printing/additive manufacturing techniques will be major advantages. Novel functional coatings and 3D printing/additive manufacturing techniques will be critical to value-added components in the future development of technologies. The book provide an overview of the recent development in coating manufacturing techniques and potential to use in high-end engineering applications

3D Printing our future: Now

This 3D Printing our Future:Now talk and visual presentation was given to delegates at the IMI 3D Workshop held at 3M Buckley Innovation Centre on 17th March 2015. The event was hosted by 3Mbuckley Innovation Centre for IMI plc a global engineering company, 3M, and leading 3D additive manufacturing technology providers: EOS, Renishaw and HK 3D printing to disseminate and share their experience on the latest 3D additive design and manufacturing technologies available to the engineering and product industries. The 3D Printing our Future:Now talk and visual presentation provided an overview of art, design & architecture research, creative practice, and enterprise & innovation specifically using 3D additive technologies within the School of Art, Design & Architecture and research groups at the University of Huddersfield. The talk focused on introducing the importance of creative design research practice and how 3D printing has evolved as an increasingly essential and highly versatile tool in the creative process particularly for concept, physical visualisation, prototyping , tooling and manufacture. Nine research cases were shown to the 3M/IMI delegates to highlight the range of 3D art, concept design, prototyping, and manufacturing projects supported by University of Huddersfield 3D printing technology facilities at Queen Street Studios

An overview of the impact of additive manufacturing on supply chain, reshoring, and sustainability

The paper provides an overview of the impact of the integration of additive manufacturing (AM) within the supply chain, the correlation with the reshoring phenomenon, and its effect on environmental sustainability. Implementing AM technologies simplifies the traditional supply chain and significantly reduces costs related to transport and warehousing. Furthermore, it allows for a considerably reduced production of waste. However, the high price of machinery and the lack of current knowledge prevent it from spreading widely

Innovation in composite additive manufacturing

This master thesis contains an overview of existing additive manufacturing methods and considers possible new methods. The purpose being to develop a method for additive manufacturing that can create 3D objects with composite material and/or out of metal. Further this method should work on a low cost additive manufacturing machine. A development process is used in order to select an appropriate method. The method is then divided into parts that are individually analysed in order to produce a proof of concept model. Initially an overview of existing patents regarding additive manufacturing was conducted in order to see if the devised problem was addressed and how. A patent search regarding both additive manufacturing of composites and of metallic objects was performed. The next phase was conducting a market overview of existing low cost 3D printers and selecting one model that was appropriate for purchase. The purchased 3D printer was then assembled and tested to build up a general experience of properties and limitations of low cost printers. These properties regard both control parameters, mechanical properties (such as eigen frequencies, resolution) and print limitations (typical errors, materials etc.). Concept generation took place by brainstorming a wide range of possible ideas to address the project goal. Existing manufacturing methods and processes that inspired the concepts are described in the theory. The final concept was selected by a process of first concept screening followed by concept scoring and selection. After screening the bulk of four concepts remained. One mainly addressed the goal of manufacturing metallic parts and the others composites. Further literary study of material properties and manufacturing processes relevant to these methods was conducted for the scoring step. Also appropriate retailers of materials and parts and machines were contacted for relevant cost information. The selected concept uses photopolymers cured by UV radiation. In order to finalise the proof of concept a print head was constructed and several tests were conducted in order to observe possible fill rates and required radiation levels in order to achieve a required flow rate and curing times respectively. Finally suggestions for further development and studies is summarised.This project aimed to look at low cost 3D manufacturing technologies and develop a method to expand existing material options. Existing manufacturing methods for sets of materials were conducted in order to map out possible manufacturing steps. A review of existing models of 3D-printers was done and one was purchased and assembled. Design concepts were developed inspired by existing manufacturing methods and one method was selected using a pre-mixed compound and UV curing matrix material extruded through a nozzle and solidified with directed UV-LEDs in order to allow for manufacturing of composites. The method was verified to work and suggestions for further improvements and studies were made

Additive Manufacturing of Pure Copper: Technologies and Applications

The opportunity to process pure copper through additive manufacturing has been widely explored in recent years, both in academic research and for industrial uses. Compared to well-established fabrication routes, the inherent absence of severe design constraints in additive manufacturing enables the creation of sophisticated copper components for applications where excellent electrical and thermal conductivity is paramount. These include electric motor components, heat management systems, heat-treating inductors, and electromagnetic devices. This chapter discusses the main additive manufacturing technologies used to fabricate pure copper products and their achievable properties, drawing attention to the advantages and the challenges they have to face considering the peculiar physical properties of copper. An insight on the topic of recycling of copper powders used in additive manufacturing is also provided. Finally, an overview of the potential areas of application of additively manufactured pure copper components is presented, highlighting the current technological gaps that could be filled by the implementation of additive manufacturing solutions

From 3D Models to 3D Prints: an Overview of the Processing Pipeline

Due to the wide diffusion of 3D printing technologies, geometric algorithms for Additive Manufacturing are being invented at an impressive speed. Each single step, in particular along the Process Planning pipeline, can now count on dozens of methods that prepare the 3D model for fabrication, while analysing and optimizing geometry and machine instructions for various objectives. This report provides a classification of this huge state of the art, and elicits the relation between each single algorithm and a list of desirable objectives during Process Planning. The objectives themselves are listed and discussed, along with possible needs for tradeoffs. Additive Manufacturing technologies are broadly categorized to explicitly relate classes of devices and supported features. Finally, this report offers an analysis of the state of the art while discussing open and challenging problems from both an academic and an industrial perspective.Comment: European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; H2020-FoF-2015; RIA - Research and Innovation action; Grant agreement N. 68044

Survey on Additive Manufacturing, Cloud 3D Printing and Services

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the concept of using manufacturing resources in a service oriented way over the Internet. Recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) are making it possible to utilise resources ad-hoc as replacement for traditional manufacturing resources in case of spontaneous problems in the established manufacturing processes. In order to be of use in these scenarios the AM resources must adhere to a strict principle of transparency and service composition in adherence to the Cloud Computing (CC) paradigm. With this review we provide an overview over CM, AM and relevant domains as well as present the historical development of scientific research in these fields, starting from 2002. Part of this work is also a meta-review on the domain to further detail its development and structure